Mary, give me your Heart: so beautiful, so pure, so immaculate; your heart so full of love and humility that I may be able to receive Jesus in the Bread of Life and love him as you love him and serve him in the distressing guise of the poor.
Mother Teresa
The mystery of the missing hearth
Hestia is the ancient Greek goddess of the hearth and home. She is the heart of the family. She is the eldest daughter of the titans Cronus and Rhea, who themselves were born of Earth (Gaia) and Sky (Uranus). She is the first Olympian. She is a virgin, never marries, but sits and tends the hearth. She is so synonymous with fire, that she is often as fire itself, the warmth and heart of the soul. In this sense, Hestia is also equivalent to the Zoroastrian holy fire from ancient Persia. Fire (atar) along with water (atan) are used in ritual to purify. The adoration of Hestia was adopted by the Romans, who called her Vesta. The virgin priestesses who served her were called vestals. She was considered the heart of the Roman people and so pervasive and strong was the faith in Vesta that her worship held well after Christianity swept through the Empire. It was not until 391 AD under Christian emperor Theodosius I that her temples and worship were forcibly destroyed. But, as the laws of physics dictate, energy can never be destroyed, only changed.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.
Albert Einstein
Ancient wisdom and practice, the gods and goddesses of old, are still very much alive in our modern world. So where did Hestia who became Vesta go?
Among the Celts Brigid, like Hestia, protected the home and hearth. Also like Hestia and Vesta, she too was the first honored before all others, and especially so in ceremonies in the home. Brigid derived from the Proto-Celtic Brigantī for “high, exalted.” To clean and care for the hearth, the heart and soul of the ancient home, was to honor Brigid. The Celts, unlike others in the Roman Empire, were never fully conquered. Their religion and beliefs held strong in small pockets in Ireland at the far reaches of the Empire and still continues to this day. And in parts of the United Kingdom where Roman Christendom took hold, we know that the Celtic goddess Brigid became Saint Brigide of Kildare and her worship continued much as it had before Christianity’s influence including the same feast days and mythology. There is some debate whether of not Saint Brigid existed. Some scholars believe she was the druid leader of a temple to Brigid who converted to Christianity.
Saint Brigid’s Day is celebrated on the same day as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Candlemas. In the Celtic tradition it is called Imbolc (Oimelc). In the west, we call it Groundhog Day, February 2nd.
This date marks midwinter. In the Earth-based spirituality of the Celts, it signifies a season of expectancy, of uncoiling, the Mother preparing to birth the Earth, the Mother nursing the new Sun. For many cultures of the world, this is the beginning of the New Year, the awakening of the dragon from its lair (China). The Earth beneath us and around us pulses with new life. Great migrations begin: the whales move over the Earth, the birds are in Zugunruhe, migratory restlessness, flittering around, fattening up for migration and rehearsing small stanzas of their breeding songs; buds and early spring flowers appear. The Earth comes out of winter slumber and just before the Spring, holds within it all the creative potential of the Universe. Cleansing rains beautify and clothe the world in vibrant green and flowers. Traditionally, people make and bless candles to drive out the darkness and clean and air out their homes. Within us too, we experience a shift from inner focus and contemplation, coming out of our burrows, a restlessness, building to outward expression and manifestation, a blossoming. The warmth kindled all winter in the heart expands into outward expression. Brigid is a representation of all of these.
As withered weed through cruell winters tine,
Edmund Spense Canto 12, stanza 34.
That feeles the warmth of sunny beames reflection,
Liftes up his head, that did before decline
And gins to spread his leafe before the faire sunshine.
So we know that in Great Britain, at the edge of the Roman Empire, Brigid retained her native identity yet also, like many subjugated people, married into and adopted the beliefs of the conquerers. Only in a brief study of the Romans, we find that rather than route out entirely ancient beliefs, they adopted and Romanized them (as they did with the Greek gods). It is likely that the Virgin goddess Hestia (Vesta) like Brigid, living at the heart of Roman civilization, also assumed and even influenced the story of the Virgin Mary.
As a continuation of the Hestia/Vesta mythology, in this new identity and power, she is no longer pregnant procreative potential of the Earth and the holder of the hearth and warmth, as the Virgin Mary she gives birth to it.
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Revelations, Chapter 12: 1-2
In the late 4th century, at the same time as the routing of the last of the temples to Vesta, Epiphanius a bishop of Salamis, Cyprus wrote the Assumption and proof of immortality of the Virgin Mary basing it on Revelations Chapter 12.
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days...And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelations, Chapter 12: 6, 14-17
That which was held and embodied in the hearth, the nurturing and loving heart of the goddess, the holy fire of atar, the love that surpasses all understanding was delivered into the world as Jesus, the Christ. So Jesus, too is the hearth fire. Jesus is the embodiment of warmth, the quality of loving kindness, home, devotion and gratitude.
Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The path of Bhakti yoga in Hinduism, yoking oneself in unrestrained devotional love to God, best describes the path of Jesus, the path of the heart. Jnana yoga is knowledge-centered path and Karma yoga the path of action. Any activity that opens the felt sense centered in the heart, that opens the heart chakra to give and receive love communes also with the heart of God. To understand this on a feeling level, Andrea Oneness offers a guided meditation for adults to feel the presence of Jesus in Connecting with Jesus.
Prayer is powerful beyond limits when we turn to the Immaculata who is queen even of God’s heart.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe
The Buddhist monk, Pema Chodron writes that it is when our life falls apart, a loved one dies, in going through a divorce, in witnessing the suffering of others and when the constructed world around us seems meaningless, at the moment when our heart breaks, at this moment it fills with warmth. Because she is a Buddhist, she does not call this God, but it is that same felt sense described by Saint Maximilian Kolbe as Mary the Immaculate, the very heart of God.
When my heart broke, the qualities of natural warmth, qualities like kindness and empathy and appreciation, just spontaneously emerged.
The Natural Warmth of the Heart. Pema Chodron
Rumi and Hafiz, Sufis from the branch of mystical Islam, are examples of poet Saints fully immersed in the feeling nature of the heart, the Bhakti path to divine Union. They often write of being drunk on love and the love as flames, like the hearth flames, the eternal purifying fire of atar.
The time has come to turn your heart into a temple of fire.
Rumi
Mother Theresa, like the priestesses of old, instructs us to call directly to our immaculate heart by name.
If you ever feel distressed during your day — call upon our Lady — just say this simple prayer: ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.’ I must admit — this prayer has never failed me.
Mother Teresa
Teach the feeling of warmth, of honoring the home and heart and expanding that eternal goodness, loving-kindness and givingness to all beings in these simple activities using storytelling, games, meditation, song and affirmative prayer.
Science of Mind Foundation
WE BELIEVE in the eternal Goodness, the eternal Loving-kindness and the eternal Givingness of Life to All.
Affirmation: Warmth moves out from my heart, the center of my being, and like breathing returns again and again as a continuous pulsing flow.
Heart Chakra
Activity 1: Tell a story of warmth
The Small Bowl of Rice
In the Jataka parable told by Lord Buddha The Small Bowl of Rice, a rich, friendless and miserly man is changed by receiving help from a poor man who although has very little, is magnanimous, warm and giving. Find this story in the collection Buddha at Bedtime by Dharmachari Nagaraja. Watch me tell this story on the link below.
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The well and the flame
I like to tell The Well and the Flame created by Starhawk and published in her book Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions at Imbolc, February 2nd, the traditional time for celebrating Brigid. At midwinter, Groundhog Day, the Earth is ready to burst forth into the richness of Spring. In this story of helping others, we learn how to clean and clear the inner well and flame.
Activity 2: Lesson from the Beaver
Often I teach using animals as guides. Children love to study, listen and learn about animals almost as much as they love to draw and mimic them. The beaver works tirelessly in building their homes and in doing so, they help the whole ecosystem. Because of this, they are considered a keystone species, a species without which many other species would not survive or thrive.
Play at being a beaver by:
- drawing a picture of a beaver family in its den
- making beaver puppets with brown paper lunchbags
- telling a story about a beaver
- creating a yoga pose or movement that is like a beaver
- creating a fort, indoors or out, and pretending to be beavers living in a den
- making a dam in a creek with rocks and sticks (where allowed)
- using mud and sticks to build like a beaver
- not thinking about things too much, just following your instinct
- helping and giving to others
Activity 3: Tend the hearth
Caring for and blessing the home as a sacred sanctuary and as a symbol for warmth and heart is a time honored, ancient practice. Revive this empowering ritual in your own family by creating your own family tradition. Create a ritual every time you enter or leave the house and every time you gather as a family. It can be as simple as lighting a candle and saying “bless this home and family.” You may also choose to create an altar with images of your family, ancestors and others that support your home life. The altar can contain images or statues of the Virgin Mary or the goddesses of the hearth Vesta, Hestia, Nepthys or Brigid and other objects meaningful to your family.
House cleaning
Cleaning the home can also be steeped in sacred ritual and intention. Put on music and sing to your home as you clean. Know that when you clean you are shining and polishing the heart and center of your physical world. If you live with others, even if they are not your blood relatives, cleaning your home cleans, smooths and pacifies your relationships. When you tend the hearth, you are tending your own heart and all of its relations.
Blessing the home
Below is a blessing for the home that can be used each day. Feel free to change and modify the words to fit your sensitivities and beliefs. You may want to add a special deity or guardian for your home or to invoke your ancestors into this simple ritual. Feel free to add elements like lighting a candle, burning incense or ringing bells or shaking rattles.
O sacred and beautiful home, nourisher, protector and sustainer of this family, I thank you for your shelter. You are the hub and center of our family life, the solid center to our daily movements and activities. May the warmth of this home, our family’s love grow stronger day-by-day and in doing so spread from this our home into our community and the world. And let that love return to us 10,000- fold and be held safely and potently in this vessel, our home. May this home pulsate and vibrate, like a heartbeat of the highest resonance, always and forever lifting all those that pass its threshhold with welcoming warmth and receive each person into loving and nurturing arms, so that they may forget their troubles and be lifted by grace and light. This home is a temple for glorious good and peace. With great reverence, we care for and tend to our home. And so it is!
Activity 4: Live in service to your heart
When you are unsure about the future, keep doing what is in front of you with all your heart and with love, and what is meant for you will find you.
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
Learn to listen to your heart whisper its secrets. Remember, it may not speak in words but in feelings and instinct.
Let your heart guide you…it whispers so listen closely.
Walt Disney
The heart is giving, eternally giving in fact. Listen to it speak to you about giving to yourself and others. What fills you up and makes you feel really good? Give of yourself selflessly through seva and your children will learn by your example. Seva means selfless service. Seva is a holy act. It can come in many forms. You will know it is seva, because you will feel it as happiness in your heart.
For ideas and inspiration for seva, see Activity 6: Love yourself radically in Self-love, Activity 4: Give Gifts in Well-being and Activity 7: Let the Genie flow through in Will.
Activity 5: Meditation for Loving Kindness
This guided meditation for children is from the Buddhist tradition.
Sit in a comfortable position on the floor or in a chair. Close your eyes gently and relax. Take a deep breath and release. Breathe out any tight feelings in your body. Breathe in again and breath out. Feel your body relaxing more and more into its spot. One more time, breathe in deeply and breathe out with and open mouth a big sigh, settling into stillness. That’s it.
Feel the love you have for yourself, you whole self and all that you are: your body that can move and play, you mind that can think, your heart that can feel, your eyes that see beautiful sights, you ears that hear music, your mouth that can taste delicious foods. Imagine all of the wonders of your body and personality. Repeat or say together out loud:
May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I be safe
May my life be filled with ease
Feel those wonderful words blessing all parts of you, leaving aside, just for now any voice that might deny or judge these words or say otherwise. Just for a few moments feel fully the truth of these words in this very moment. You are happy, you are healthy, your are safe, your life is easy. Feel it in your chest as a warm glow surrounding you. Breath in and breathe out.
Now keeping your eyes closed imagine the ones you love the most in the world are with you. They are in front of you or seated circled around you. Even though you may have several people you can think of, they are only focused on and paying attention to you. These are the souls that are closest in all the world to you, like your mom or dad, siblings, grandparents, or pets. It doesn’t matter if they are alive right now or not, everyone who you love most is here. Now from your heart, send to them your love. Feel it radiating like the sun to them. Now repeat after me or say together out loud:
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May your life be filled with ease
Sit a moment and feel the love moving between you, giving and receiving. When you are ready, allow your loved ones to leave.
Now imagine around you your friends and other teachers and helpers, those souls who are intimate with you. These are people you know very well, like your good friends, parents of your friends, family friends, class teachers, neighbors or a pet that you pet sit. You know this group well. You know their voice and mannerisms. You have shared laughs and meals with them. Again, even though these souls may know one another, they are only here for you, called by you and they are only looking and paying attention to you. Feel the glow of their attention. Now repeat or say together out loud:
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May your life be filled with ease
Sit with the feeling of love flowing between you. Take a deep breath in and out. When you are ready, all these wonderful beings to leave.
Imagine before you all of your acquaintances. Acquaintances are people you see regularly but you do not necessarily know the sound of their voice, or anything about them, where they live. These people can be helpers like mail deliverers, yard workers, garbage workers, grocery and other store clerks or simply people you see but don’t know, like people from you spiritual center, kids at your school, or neighbors. See them before you. They may be looking at you or not. You may see them as they appear in the world to you, looking at the side or back of their head, or doing work. Now to this group of people, repeat or say together out loud:
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May your life be filled with ease
Feel the warmth from your heart spread and bless your acquaintances. Some of them appear to notice the blessing, but may not know from where it came. You see them smile. Breathe in and out. When you are ready, let these souls continue with their lives with your blessing.
Now imagine someone with whom you’ve had conflict or argument. This may be someone like a sibling, who you are having a fight with right now, or may be someone you know but don’t like. It’s OK to have more than one person like this. Perhaps there is a group of people you don’t like, or who you suspect don’t like you. This can be a group of kids at school or a group of people you see as different from you, maybe from a different race, religion, or country, criminals, people who may have different values and people you think are scary. You can also imagine animals or other things that are scary or hateful, like fire, monsters, tornadoes, poison oak, germs and mosquitoes. See these around you. They may or may not be looking at you. If they are looking at you and scowling, know that you are completely safe. Now pick one thing, perhaps the one thing or person that is really, really upsetting you to focus on. Ready? Now repeat or say together out loud:
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May your life be filled with ease
How does that feel to bless you enemy with loving kindness? Perhaps if you are very lucky, you may begin to see the situation from their perspective and love them despite your differences. Sit with that feeling and explore this new discovery. Breathe in and breath out. When you are ready, let this image go.
Now continue to sit as long as you like. Notice your heart. Feel the warmth and peace. Feel if filling up your whole body and expanding out from your body in all directions. Now gather it all back in again safely back into your heart. Know that this wonderful feeling is always there in your heart to visit as often as you like.
When you are ready, take a deep breath, wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes.
Activity 6: The Loving Kindness Song
This song is fantastic to sing after the lovingkindness meditation to integrate and express the warmth the practice elicits. It also is validating for children to hear the same words from many sources, not just from their parents (especially after the age of 9).
This song is performed by Charity Kahn with movements and the children of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village.
Activity 7: Affirmative prayer for Warmth
There is only One.
One Loving presence that weaves in and through all of creation.
This One is playing a chord.
My heart responds, for I am created of the same matter, the same mold, the same pure note.
This One is God and God is being me Now.
The vibration lifts me up and warms be all over.
This warmth feels like happiness, peace and joy.
It moves out from my heart, the center of my being and returns to my heart again and again as a continuous pulsing flow just like breathing.
I see now that this breath of heart love has always been here at the very center of my being.
It is a warm fire that is never consumed and a well that is never empty.
This is my sacred, immaculate heart, it is the great loving Mother, the heart of God and my true home and being.
It is eternally good, eternally loving and eternally giving.
I can return anytime to this loving, warm place for it never leaves me.
Not ever.
I am so grateful.
Thank you God.
I release and let go of any darkness and coldness, and come always to warm myself by the fire of this sacred hearth.
And so it is.
Amen.
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Image credits
Warming lamp Brett Hondow
Vesta cigarette card By Unknown author
Brigida von Kildare in Groß St Martin Köln By HOWI – Horsch, Willy – Self-photographed, CC BY 3.0
Saint Brigid’s cross
The Coronation of the Virgin Mary by Georg Pencz (1500–1550) Collection Dominican Monastery Kraków displayed during temporary exhibition Europa Jagellonica in the National Museum in Warsaw.
Coronation of the Virgin By Filippino Lippi – Web Gallery of Art
The Assumption of the Virgin Mary Dimitris Vetsikas
Virgin Mary Dimitris Vetsikas
sacred heart of Jesus Bruno Couto
Sacred heart of Jesus statue Marc Pascual
beaver skeeze
